Walter Robert Bird was born in Hoylake, Cheshire, England, in 1882, the son of Samuel Henry and Mary Bird (née Williams). His father was a retired sea captain, and the family home was at 22, Grove Road, Hoylake. The family was well known in the Hoylake area.
After leaving school in Hoylake, Walter Bird became apprenticed to Mr. W.G. Burgess, Butcher, of Market Street, Hoylake, and then continued his training with Albert and Septimus Davies, of Crosby and Waterloo, Liverpool, where he met Catherine Morrison, who was to become his wife. They married on the 11th April 1904, at The Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury, in Waterloo. They lived at 32, Derby Lane, Stoneycroft, Liverpool, Lancashire, with their four children, Walter, born in 1908, Kathleen, born in 1910, Pauline, born in 1912, and Joseph, born in 1914.
At some time before the war, he joined the Cunard Steam Ship Company as a butcher and served on the Mauretania, Ivernia, Franconia and Aquitania, by which time he had acquired the rank of Chief Butcher in the Stewards' Department.
He only joined the crew of the Lusitania because the Aquitania was laid up prior to her conversion by The Admiralty to a hospital ship. He signed on for his second voyage on board the Lusitania, on the 12th May 1915 at a monthly rate of pay of £6-10s-0d., (£6.50p.), and reported for duty at 7 a.m. five days later, before she left England for the final time.
He was killed three weeks later after the Cunarder was torpedoed. He was aged 32 years.
His body was not amongst those recovered and identified after the sinking and despite
his brother and sister-in law, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fitzsimmons, travelling to southern Ireland to search for him; no more was ever seen or heard of him again. Consequently, and he has no known grave. He is commemorated, however, on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London and on the municipal war memorial in Waterloo, Merseyside.
In common with all crew victims of the sinking, Cunard paid his wages up until the 8th May, 24 hours after the sinking and eventually, the balance owing to him was forwarded to his widow. The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted a yearly pension to Catherine Bird to compensate her for the loss of her husband which amounted to £106-6s-11d. (£106.34½p.), which was payable at the rate of £8-17s-3d. (£8.86p.) per month.
Some time after the sinking, a surviving crew member who had known Walter Bird, visited his widow, Catherine, at Derby Lane and told her that he had last seen her husband standing on the deck as the ship was sinking, throwing heavy deck chairs into the sea, so that people could use them to keep afloat!
At the time of the sinking, Catherine was pregnant again and in November 1915, she gave birth to their fifth child, another daughter, Margaret, who would never, ever, know her father.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Cheshire Diocese of Chester Parish Baptisms 1538 – 1911, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, UK World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards 1914 – 1923, Birkenhead News, (photo 12/05/1915 p.2 c.4), PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 351/1/11174, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Joseph Bird, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 14th December 2022.